Chasteberry

This is an herb that blooms and sheds at a particular time of year in the Mediterranean region.

With it’s fragrant flowers, lancelike leaves, and gray or purple berries that look like peppercorns, it has a long reputation for treating menstrual disorders.

Medicinal Properties:

This healing herb works primarily on the pituitary gland to balance and stabilize the hormonal fluctuations women experience every month with their menstrual cycle.

It increases the body’s secretion of luteinizing hormone which helps to reduce prolactin and increase both progesterone and follicle-stimulating hormones.

Higher levels of prolactin contribute to irregular or the absence of the menstruation cycle, thus, using this herb helps to normalize the menstrual cycle, including symptoms of PMS.

Evidence suggests that the flowers contain the plant world’s equivalent of human testosterone, which would help to stimulate libido.

Therapeutic Uses:

This healing herb has been beneficial in the following uses:

Acne, breast milk deficiency, breast pain, menstrual irregularities, either the absence or excess of menstrual flow, due to its hormone stabilizing properties.

This healing herb helps with premenstrual tension as well due to its hormone balancing influence on the body resulting in less fluid retention, irritability, mood swings and headaches.

A reputable amount of studies have been performed testing the claims for using this herb.

In a well-controlled study of 52 women with hyperprolactinemia (too much prolactin), taking 20 mg/day of chasteberry, for 3 months normalized most menstrual hormone levels.

Furthermore, of these women studied, out of those who were experiencing
PMS
this healing herb caused a significant reduction in symptoms.

In another well-controlled study to evaluate the effect of chasteberry on premenstrual tension syndrome (PMTS), 105 women were given either 4mg of the herb or 100mg of pyridoxine (Vitamin B-6).

After 3 months of treatment, using a standard rating scale, the herb was considered to be 77.1% effective, while pyridoxine was considered to be 60.6% effective.

Investigators that performed this study considered the herb to be twice as effective as pyridoxine and women in the study also rated chasteberry higher than pyridoxine in effectiveness at alleviating PMTS symptoms.